


even children get older (i'm getting older too)

by Cones_McMurphy



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Allusions to a toxic home life, Bobby and Carlos are both just mentioned, Canon Compliant, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Reggie's Parents Suck, and all that good stuff, and divorce, content warning for planting invasive species probably, is this concept anything?, more with Nora or maybe stuff with Reggie and Carrie?, should I write more of this?, title from Landslide by Fleetwood Mac
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:41:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28278558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cones_McMurphy/pseuds/Cones_McMurphy
Summary: Luke looked up from his journal, now interested. “Okay, I have to know what Bobby’s ex-wife is like. He was always such a flirt, I can’t imagine the type of person who would get him to settle down.”Reggie snorted. “Clearly it didn’t work.”Julie rolled her eyes at them, but continued anyway. “Her name’s Nora. She moved to Chicago after the divorce, but she comes back and visits a couple times a year.”Luke and Alex looked at her strangely, but Reggie had refocused on his instrument. “Did you say her name was Nora?”“Yeah…”Luke glanced at Reggie. “What’s her last name?”“Uh, Peters, I think, why?”OR: Reggie has an older sister, and apparently, a niece
Relationships: Julie Molina & Reggie Peters
Comments: 9
Kudos: 134
Collections: jatpdaily secret santa 2020





	even children get older (i'm getting older too)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the JATP Secret Santa! For sunset-bobby on tumblr! I hope you like it! I wanted to focus on Julie and Reggie's friendship, and I wanted to somehow incorporate stuff about Bobby for you. I hope you don't mind the OC. Merry Christmas!

It was a Saturday afternoon when it happened. 

The rain was coming down in sheets, unusual for Los Angeles, but not unheard of, and certainly not unwelcome. Julie had decided to spend her day reading the book she was assigned for her English class earlier in the week. She’d plopped herself down on the old couch in the studio, still wanting to be around her boys, even if they weren’t actively hanging out. Luke was scribbling down lyrics in his journal, Alex was glued to the hand-me-down phone Flynn had given him (texting Willie, surely), and Reggie was tuning his bass--more so out of habit than necessity. 

It was Alex who asked the question, when he finally looked up from his phone. 

“Does Bobby have a wife?” 

Julie looked up from her book in confusion. “Uh. What?” 

“Sorry, I mean. You mentioned his daughter, Carrie. Is he married, or…” Alex trailed off. 

“Oh.” Julie put her book down. “He was married, for awhile. They divorced when Carrie and I were in middle school. In retrospect, that was probably one of the reasons our friendship fell apart. I didn’t realize how much she must’ve been struggling with it.” 

Luke looked up from his journal, now interested. “Okay, I have to know what Bobby’s ex-wife is like. He was always such a flirt, I can’t imagine the type of person who would get him to actually settle down.” 

Reggie snorted, not looking up, only half engaged with the conversation. “Clearly it didn’t work.” 

Julie rolled her eyes at them, but continued anyway. “Her name’s Nora. She moved to Chicago after the divorce, but she comes back and visits a couple times a year.” 

Luke and Alex looked at her strangely, but Reggie remained focused on his instrument. “Did you say her name was Nora?” 

“Yeah…” 

Luke glanced at Reggie. “What’s her last name?” 

“Uh, Peters, I think, why?” 

Luke opened his mouth to explain, but before he could a dissonant chord cut through the garage, and they all looked at Reggie, whose fingers had slid off the bass.

“Nora Peters?” Reggie asked, voice thick. “Did you say Nora Peters?” 

“Uh. Yeah?” 

Reggie looked stricken, his eyes were wide and he’d gone paler than usual. And then he was gone. Poofed out to God knows where. 

Julie turned to Luke and Alex, perplexed. 

“It’s not really our place to explain,” Alex said quietly. 

Luke nodded. “I’m sure he’ll tell you when he’s ready. Give him some time to process.” 

Julie sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Okay, I understand.” 

* * *

Reggie didn’t come back until late that night. Julie stayed out in the studio for the rest of the afternoon, waiting for him to poof back in, but he never did. So, eventually, she had to leave Alex and Luke to their own devices, and walk back to the house for dinner. They promised to tell Reggie to go see her as soon as he got back. She ate dinner quickly, using the excuse of lots of homework (really, she didn’t want her dad noticing that she was upset), and rushed up the stairs to wait for Reggie. 

Eventually, he showed up, once she had given up hope, changed into her pajamas, and was crawling into bed. He poofed into her room by the foot of the bed. 

“Hey,” was all he said. 

“Wanna tell me what happened this afternoon?” She didn’t move closer to him, not wanting to freak him out. But he moved closer to her, sitting down on the edge of her bed. 

“Yeah…” He hesitated. “It’s just. Give me a second.” 

“Sure.” Whatever this was, it was serious, and emotional, and Julie knew better than to push too hard. 

“So.” A long, deep breath. “Peters is my last name. Nora Peters is my sister.” 

Oh. “That...That must’ve been a lot to hear, then. Not just that Bobby married your sister, but that you have a niece.” Not for the first time, Julie wished she could reach out to one of her boys, to comfort him. But except for that night after the Orpheum performance, they remained completely intangible to her. 

“Yeah,” He swallowed. “But it’s not just that.” 

She smiled reassuringly. “It’s okay, you can tell me anything.” 

He nodded. “Right. Well, you know my home life growing up wasn’t the best.” 

“Yeah.” 

“But it wasn’t all bad, because even when my parents were screaming at each other, throwing things across the house...I always had my big sister.” He smiled, presumably at the memories he was dredging up. “She was my hero growing up. She was only three years older than me, but she was always there to protect me from them, to take me out of the house, maybe to the park, or to get ice cream.” 

“I’m glad you had that.” She really was. 

“Me too, God knows how much worse I would’ve turned out if it wasn’t for her.” Reggie toyed with a frayed thread on his jeans. “But she...she left.” 

“She left?” 

“When she turned 18, and graduated from high school,” he clarified. “I don’t blame her for wanting to get out of there. But I never heard from her again. All of the sudden, I was totally alone in that house, and I--I…” He trailed off, choking on tears. The urge to reach out and hold him was even stronger. 

“Reggie…” She hesitated, unsure of what to say. She knew she was lucky, not to have any comparable experiences of family dysfunction, but she wished she had any idea of what to do, or how to comfort him. “I’m so sorry.” 

“When I was alive, I felt so betrayed by her leaving,” He continued. “I could only see it as her abandoning me. In retrospect, I’m sure it had more to do with getting away from our parents.” 

“It’s still okay to be hurt by it.” 

“I know,” he bit his lip, seemingly unsure if he should continue. She smiled reassuringly, imploring him to go on. “I went to my grave today. I don’t know why, I haven’t even thought about it since I became a ghost. But suddenly it was all I could think about.” 

“Wow, I can't imagine what that must be like.” 

“It was...It was maintained. Clean. Someone planted wildflowers, I think, because I didn’t see the same types of flowers anywhere else in the cemetery, and they were a few different types and colors." 

Julie’s heart swelled at that. “Do you think--” 

“Well, it sure wasn’t my parents.” Reggie shrugged. “Who else would it have been?” 

“She loved you,” Julie said softly. “Loves you still, even. Love doesn’t go anywhere when we lose someone, that’s why it hurts so much. There’s nowhere for all that love to go anymore.” 

Reggie nodded, a watery smile pulling at his lips. “I just wish I could talk to her again. Find out how she ended up marrying Bobby, if she knew that he stole Luke’s songs." 

Julie pursed her lips. “I wish I could tell you more about it.” 

Reggie didn’t say anything. It was clear, suddenly, that Reggie wanting to talk to his sister wasn’t just about finding out what happened. He just wanted to see her again. And that’s what got the gears turning in her head, because maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t so impossible. 

* * *

It took two weeks to get Nora Peters to fly in from Chicago. 

First, she had to dig up Nora’s email, which she was lucky enough to still have saved. She’d worried that Nora had changed her email address, but it was the best she could do. She sent the link to the Edge of Great video, and her phone number. She figured Nora would recognize her brother, and she was right. 

Nora called exactly ten minutes later, shocked and confused. She did _not_ take the “they're ghosts” answer very well at first. Julie didn’t blame her. It’s a lot to absorb. And it sounds absolutely crazy at first. It was only natural that Nora would initially assume that the video was just some crazy special effects editing and nothing more. That’s when Julie started spouting facts about Reggie, which worked surprisingly well. 

_“He really wants to see you.”_

_“Are you asking me to drop everything and fly to Los Angeles to see my brother who’s been dead for 25 years and is now a ghost?”_

_“Uh. Yeah?”_

_“...I’ll see what I can do.”_

What she could do, it turned out, was put in a vacation request (something she usually only did for Carrie’s birthday), buy a plane ticket, and send Julie an email that simply read: _I’ll be there in two days._

It was only then, staring at that email, that Julie realized she was going to have to tell Reggie what she’d done. She hoped he wouldn’t be mad at her for overstepping, that he would appreciate the gesture, instead. Before she could work up the courage to tell Reggie, she told Luke and Alex. 

“You did _what_?” Alex scoffed. 

“I emailed Reggie’s sister,” Julie repeated. “And she’s coming here in two days.” 

“And she knows...we’re ghosts?” Luke sounded almost affronted that Julie had just told Nora their secret. 

“Yes.” 

“Oh, boy.” 

“Reggie was just so...so sad that he couldn’t talk to her,” Julie shook her head. “I had to do something.” 

“And that’s very sweet,” Alex admitted. “But Reggie can be...unpredictable. And there’s a lot of baggage there, and--” 

“And it will be fine,” Julie snapped. “I’ll be there, facilitating conversation, the entire time.” 

As confident as Julie was in her plan, she still waited until an hour before Nora was supposed to show up to tell Reggie what she’d done. Alex and Luke had made themselves scarce for the day, Alex with Willie, and Luke who knows where. So it was just her and Reggie in the studio, messing around with the new song she and Luke had been working on. 

“So, Reg, I have something to tell you.” 

Reggie nodded brightly. “What’s up?” 

“I called your sister.” 

Reggie’s grin faltered. “You--What?” 

“She’s coming here, to see you, today.” Julie plowed on, swallowing her nerves. “She knows you’re a ghost and everything. I just, you seemed so upset that you couldn’t see her, and I realized that that’s not entirely true. So, I got her to fly out from Chicago. For you.” 

Reggie’s eyes already brimmed with tears. “You...For me? Julie…” 

“I hope I didn’t overstep.” 

“Oh,” Reggie snorted, but it was tinged with emotion. “You absolutely did. But I know you did it out of love. And I do really want to see her again, even if it ends badly.” 

“You’re handling this much better than I thought.” Julie admitted. “Alex should give you more credit.” 

“Alex is always going to think of me as a child,” Reggie rolled his eyes. “And he’s not always going to be wrong about that.” 

Julie giggled. “Fair enough.” 

And that's when they heard the knock at the studio door. Julie’s stomach did flip-flops. She’d told Nora to come around back to the garage, to avoid any questions from her dad, as to why Carrie’s mom was there out of the blue, so she knew it must be her. 

“She’s here, isn’t she?” 

Julie nodded, turning to the door. She opened it, and there was Nora Peters. Nora had long, dark hair that flowed down to her mid-back, and the same grey-green eyes as her brother. Julie had seen her before, but it only hit her then how alike they looked. 

“Hello, Julie.” 

“Hi, Nora.” Julie smiled politely, moving aside to let her in. “I’m so glad you came.” 

Nora swallowed nervously. “Is...Is he here?” 

Julie glanced over to where Reggie was standing, barely holding it together. “He is. He can see and hear you.” She’d already explained how the ghost stuff worked over the phone, but she felt the need to reiterate. “There’s a pen and a notepad on the piano that he’ll use to communicate with you.” 

Nora simply nodded. Reggie walked over to the piano, and grabbed the pen and pad. Nora’s eyes widened as they appeared to float in front of her. 

_Hi_

“Reggie?” 

_Yup! I’d say ‘in the flesh’ but well..._

“That’s my little brother all right,” Nora rolled her eyes. “Cracking jokes about being a ghost.” 

Julie held back a chuckle. 

_Julie thinks I’m funny._

“I never said you weren’t funny,” Nora responded. There was a silence, and Julie realized neither one of them knew what to say anymore. 

“Reggie, didn’t you have some questions for Nora?” She prompted. 

_Right._

_I heard you married Bobby. How’d that happen?_

“We were both grieving, him for his best friends, and me for my baby brother. We leaned on each other a lot, the first few years after...Well, you know. We became close from there, and that friendship eventually turned into a romance.” 

_Did you know he used our songs without credit?_

“Not at first. He got that first record deal when he was barely eighteen. Not even a full year after...I was still so deep in my grief that I barely paid attention to it. By the time I realized what had happened it was too late to change it.” 

_Do you know why he did it?_

“Hollywood is a twisted web, Reg. I don’t think he even knew what he was doing. He was a kid, and he lost so much. And then he got a record deal, and I just think he was desperate not to lose the opportunity. But he was never really a songwriter, was he? So he sent them the only songs he had.” 

_He still could’ve given us credit._

“True. And I think he wanted to, eventually. But that would’ve meant admitting that he’d lied before, that his career was built on a false foundation.” 

_It would’ve ruined his reputation._

“Exactly. And by that point we had a daughter to think about. We both wanted the best for Carrie, and Bobby losing everything would not be that.” 

_You still call him Bobby. Not Trevor?_

“I’ve known him since long before he was Trevor Wilson, and I’ll be a part of his life long after Trevor Wilson is just a distant memory.” 

_I guess having a kid together sort of ties you to someone forever._

“Yeah, yeah it does.” 

_You seem pretty amicable, for being divorced._

“Yeah, I got lucky there. We weren’t our parents. The whole thing was pretty calm and civil. I know it still hurt Carrie, though.” 

_Yeah…_

There was another lull, and Julie was about to interject again, when Nora took a shaky breath, and began to speak. 

“Look, Reggie. I know you must be mad at me for leaving,” she started. “For never coming back for you. God knows, I’ve spent enough time being angry at myself.” She shook her head. “When I heard you were gone, it was the worst day of my life. I felt so guilty, like maybe if I hadn’t left, or if I had come back for you, or if I’d taken you with me in the first place, you wouldn’t have…I wouldn’t have lost you.” 

_It’s okay._ Reggie’s eyes were full of tears now. 

“It’s not, though. I’m so sorry for leaving you behind.” 

_You just wanted to get away from Mom and Dad. I was angry at first, but I don’t blame you anymore. And it’s certainly not your fault I died. That’s the fault of some very evil hot dogs._

Nora sniffed back tears of her own. “I love you, you know? I love you so much.” 

_I love you too. I missed you so much._

“I wish I could hug you.” 

_Me too._

Nora snuffled, and turned to Julie. “Thank you so much.” 

“You’re welcome.” Julie smiled. “I have a little brother, too.” 

“I think you have three brothers,” Reggie mumbled under his breath, and Julie had to stifle a laugh. He wasn’t wrong. He and Alex _were_ like two more brothers to her. 

“Well,” Nora straightened herself out. “I should probably go see Carrie while I’m in town.” 

“Of course,” Julie nodded. 

_One last question?_

“Anything.” 

_Did you plant those flowers on my grave?_

That seemed to surprise Nora, because it took her a few seconds to respond. “Yeah.” 

_What are they?_

“The pink ones are primroses,” Nora explained with a smile. “The white ones are Hawthorn. And the yellow ones are cinquefoils.” 

_They’re beautiful. Thank you._

“I’m glad you like them.” Nora stepped back toward the door. “I should be going.” 

_How long will you be in town? Could you come to our gig tomorrow?_

She grinned. “I'd like that. I’ll be here for a few days.” 

“Great,” Julie responded with a grin of her own, hoping it was wide enough to make up for the fact that Nora couldn't see the smile on her brother's face. “I’ll send you the details.” 

With that, Nora made her goodbyes and headed out. As soon as she was gone, Reggie seemed to dissolve, letting his tears flow freely. 

“Are you okay?” 

He nodded. “Honestly? I’m better than I’ve been in a long time.” 

“You really missed her didn’t you?” Julie thought about Carlos, and how it would feel to lose him, or even for him to just move far away, and she understood. 

“I did,” Reggie nodded. “But, y’know, I’ve got a pretty great sister here, too.” Julie felt a comforting warmth in her chest at his words. 

“I love you, too, Reg.” 


End file.
